Keenan Allen stalled as he slowly put on his “Slayer” merchandise. The Chargers’ wide receiver began to promote his clothing line by showing a gray beanie to the horde of media surrounding his locker.

Allen was selling, but maybe he was buying time.

Allen was still in shock and not prepared to provide answers for an embarrassing 41-28 loss to the New England Patriots Sunday that ended the Chargers’ season with a thud.

Time was up. Allen put on the beanie and faced the music.

Sign up for Home Turf and get exclusive stories every SoCal sports fan must read, sent daily. Subscribe here.

Allen tilted his body to the right, rolled his eyes to the left, and made an oof-like sound after receiving the first question.

“Umm, I don’t know,” he said.

Allen and many of his teammates praised the Patriots for their dominant performance. But the Chargers couldn’t explain their lackluster outing.

It wasn’t the first time the Chargers were down big against an offensive juggernaut. They couldn’t keep up against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1 and the Rams in Week 3, but the Chargers at least scored enough to have a chance in the second half.

In the biggest game of the season, the Chargers were out of it by halftime, trailing the Patriots 35-7.

An anticlimactic ending for a drama-filled 2018 season.

“One game definitely doesn’t define us as a team,” Chargers tight end Antonio Gates said about the postseason exit.

The fight wasn’t there versus the Patriots, but the Chargers had been fighting since May, overcoming injuries, playing home games in a soccer stadium with a small fan base, and logging the most miles in the NFL for road games.

The Chargers responded by finishing with 13 wins, a 12-4 regular-season record, tied for best in the AFC, and posted a 9-1 record in games away from Los Angeles.

Chargers coach Anthony Lynn wondered what would have happened in New England if Corey Liuget, Denzel Perryman, Kyzir White and Jatavis Brown were available to play. All vital defensive players who sustained season-ending injuries throughout the year.

That doesn’t include tight end Hunter Henry’s torn ACL in May and cornerback Jason Verrett’s torn Achilles tendon in July, or Joey Bosa’s foot injury that caused him to miss the first nine games of the season.

Many of the aforementioned injured players visited the team often because they wanted to be around the winning culture Lynn built.

Henry sped up his recovery because he desperately wanted to play in a postseason game. Playoff games were rare before Lynn arrived in 2017.

The Chargers were 5-11 during Henry’s rookie season in 2016. He returned to play 14 snaps versus the Patriots last week.

It was an ugly finish, but the Chargers improved from missing the playoffs by a win in 2017 to winning a playoff game in 2018. The Chargers defeated the Baltimore Ravens 23-17 in the wild-card round on Jan. 6 for the team’s first playoff game in five years.

Lynn might not win Coach of the Year because he’s not a playcaller like the other front-runners, but his leadership earned the respect from Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

The five-time Super Bowl winning coach understands the extra obstacles Lynn had to face because of relocation. The Chargers started 0-4 last season in their first year away from San Diego. Lynn and the Chargers have gone 22-8 since the winless start.

“Relocating a franchise is not an easy thing to do,” Belichick said last week. “Dealing with all of that, all of the other challenges that normal teams have in the National Football League are difficult, but when you throw relocation and international games and some other things that have come up along the way on top of that, I think that that organization has shown a lot of resiliency, mental toughness and certainly a very high level of performance over a sustained period of time.”

The Chargers started 1-2 with the losses to the Chiefs and Rams, and recovered by winning six straight games, including victories against the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans.

Both wins weren’t considered signature victories until the end of the season when the Seahawks clinched the fifth seed in the NFC and the Titans fell a game short of an AFC wild-card spot.

Those two wins came in the midst of a lengthy fall road trip across many time zones. The Chargers went 4-0 on the trip starting with a victory against the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 14. The team stayed in Cleveland before traveling to London to face the Titans at Wembley Stadium. After the bye week, the Chargers went to Seattle and ended in Oakland on Nov. 11.

The Chargers were 7-2, but hardly anyone noticed and weren’t taken seriously. The streak ended against the lowly Denver Broncos at home on Nov. 18.

“Same old Chargers,” many pundits said after the setback.

The Chargers commanded respect in December with two memorable comeback road wins in prime time. They erased a 16-point deficit against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 2 thanks to a 73-yard punt return from Desmond King and a last-second game-winning field goal from rookie kicker Michael Badgley.

That’s when the nation learned these Chargers weren’t the same old Chargers. They were finally winning because of their special teams, an area that had haunted them for years.

They flirted with the No. 1 seed after a gusty 2-point conversion gave the Chargers a win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium after trailing by 14 points with eight minutes left on Dec. 13.

The Chargers’ home field advantage hopes ended with a loss to the Ravens at StubHub Center on Dec. 22. They returned the favor two weeks later. The Chargers avenged three of their five losses this season. They only faced the Rams and Patriots once.

With a productive rookie class led by All-Pro safety Derwin James, the Chargers laid the foundation to contend again next season. But changes will come as they always do every offseason.

Gates said his goodbyes a year go, but returned after the Henry injury. He’s hoping to get invited back for another opportunity to win a Super Bowl title with longtime teammate Philip Rivers, who delivered an MVP-like season in his 15th year in the NFL.

Lynn expects the 37-year-old quarterback to continue playing at a high level next season.

“After what he showed this year, I really think he can play for a couple more years,” Lynn said of Rivers. “Maybe even more. Who knows? I don’t know what these guys take these days, they play forever.”

Rivers could play into his 40s, but Super Bowl windows don’t last long. The 2019 season could be now or never for Rivers’ quest for a Super Bowl trophy.

Gilbert Manzano grew up reading the Pasadena Star-News, and now he’s the Chargers beat writer for the Southern California News Group. Manzano moved back to Pasadena after working three years for the Las Vegas Review-Journal as a Raiders and boxing reporter. The Cal State Northridge graduate spent two seasons as a breaking news editor for NFL.com. The Spanish-speaking lefty likes to go on runs with his dog, Cam.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.